News: Preparing for an overhaul

Pvt. Raymond Stevens, a unit supply specialist with Company A, 589th Brigade Support Battalion, Task Force Pegasus Fires, stops traffic as a convoy of vehicles turns onto Hell on Wheels Avenue on Fort Hood, Texas, Jan. 13. The 589th Brigade Support Battalion along with Battery A, 26th Field Artillery Regiment (Target Acquisition Battery) and HHB are relocating all vehicles, shipping containers and other equipment within their old motor pool, so it can be renovated over the course of the next year. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Garett Hernandez, Task Force Pegasus Fires Public Affairs).

After months of preparation, all of the vehicles, equipment and shipping containers were moved from one motor pool near 31st Street to its provisional home near 63rd Street.

The battalion, along with the two batteries with which it shares the motor pool, moved to the former motor pool of 3rd Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.
“3 BEB is moving out of their motor pool, and we will be back-filling them into their motor pool,” said Maj. Andrew Smith, the 589th BSB support operations officer. “We will occupy for about 12 months while the current motor pool is being renovated, and once that is completed, the 589th will be moving back to its original motor pool.”

Over the next year, the 589th BSB’s old motor pool will go through major changes as it is being renovated.

The buildings will be getting new roofs, new air conditioning units, and more office space, said Brent Cabaniss, a mechanical engineer with the Fort Hood Directorate of Public Works.

In the months leading up to the move, 589th BSB worked to ensure they would have the time to set up the new motor pool once it was reached.

The most difficult task was getting vehicles serviced ahead of schedule, said 1st Lt. Jim Noblin, the executive officer of Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, Task Force Pegasus Fires.
Vehicles are scheduled for routine maintenance and have a time frame in which it must be completed. Much like a common sedan, military vehicles undergo routine maintenance like oil changes, brakes replacements, or tire rotations.

“November and December we were trying to get ahead as much as possible and as much as the service window would allow,” said Noblin, a native of Walls, Miss. “If there was something due in January, and if we could get done in December, we would.”
Now that the move is complete 589th BSB soldiers are spending time setting up their work areas and returning to repairing equipment.

“We will still be able to continue our mission whether we are here or down the road. Things won’t change once we are up and operational,” said Smith, a native of Brea, Calif.